DirectExpose

Trump’s First Budget Makes Drastic Cuts to Domestic Programs

Trump’s First Budget Makes Drastic Cuts to Domestic Programs

President Donald Trump’s first budget is out and it has something to upset just about everyone. Mick Mulvaney did a number of interviews to promote and talk up the plan. He called it compassionate and needed to keep the United States safe. The budget, called “skinny” and a “hard power budget” slashes many programs that help the poorest people in the country.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The budget proposal also will cut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by 31.4%, State Department by 28.7%, Labor Department by 20.7%, Agriculture Department by 20.7%, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by 16.2%, Department of Education by 13.5% and Department of Housing and Urban Development by 13.2%. The budget proposal also eliminates a number of programs that help the needy. It boosts defense spending and the budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The budget came from Trump’s speeches.

The budget director, and others, said the proposal was taken directly from speeches the president gave during the campaign. Mulvaney, and others, said the team that put the budget proposal together went through the president’s speeches from the campaign and interviews he gave with the media to set the priorities in the proposal that they presented to Congress.

Not everyone is on board with the budget.

The president’s budget is only a suggestion. The real budget is not drafted by the Executive Branch but is written and passed by Congress. As it was presented, Trump’s blueprint for federal spending hurts many people around the nation. Another problem is the fact that this plan does nothing to address the real spending in Washington. While it may be easier to cut discretionary spending, the lion’s share of spending is on entitlement programs. These are left completely alone in the president’s plan. Congressman Charlie Dent (R-PA) put it this way, “The president proposes and Congress disposes. We can’t finance a defense buildup entirely on the back of domestic, non-defense spending. It’s not realistic and unfair.”

While some say the proposal put forth this week shows Trump’s commitment to the promises he made, others see many promises broken. For example, during the campaign, he talked a lot about improving the infrastructure around the country but this proposal cuts all of the programs that would make that happen.

Is ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile’ Even Historically Accurate?

Fans of High School Musical would be shocked to see Zac Efron's killer new role as Ted Bundy. As the star of the new Netflix movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, Efron effortlessly channels the delightfully charming psychopath. This thriller portrays Bundy as his friends and family saw him— attractive, polite, and intelligent. Only near the end does the film reveal...

What’s Going To Happen In ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’?

In April 2019, Lucasfilm debuted the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, Illinois. Fans were provided with a sneak peek of the new installment. But it didn’t take long for them to think of their own theories about what to expect. So Many Questions Fans aren’t really prepared...

When Real-Life Plays A Part In TV Plotlines

Not every show has its plot lined out from the moment the pilot airs, and still, sometimes real-life can get in the way. Even the best laid plans can go awry, and sometimes plotlines are created entirely to accommodate an actor’s unexpected personal issue. From pregnancies to off-set injuries (and of course plenty of on-set injuries), writers are reworking scripts so that you’d never know something else was happening behind the scenes. Think you know why an actor exited a show? We’ll bet you didn’t even realize that some major show plots happened out of serendipity. Read on to find out how in some cases, the truth really is stranger than fiction.